The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
The Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technique is a high speed transmission technique for transmitting data over twisted pair telephone lines (Unshielded Twist Pair (UTP) lines), including Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Lines (ADSLs), Very-high-bit-rate Digital Subscriber Lines (VDSLs), Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) based Digital Subscriber Lines (IDSLs), etc., which are collectively referred to as xDSLs.
As the subscribers' demands for broadband services grow rapidly, DSLs increase dramatically in number and become more and more bulky. Therefore, line management and maintenance becomes more and more important.
FIG. 1 shows a typical XDSL management system, including:
a remote access device 110, usually a MODEM, generally configured to modulate/demodulate XDSL data signals to properly receive/transmit XDSL data, the remote access device 110 particularly including a remote XDSL transceiver unit (xTU-R) 111, a remote xTU management entity 112, and a remote management information base 113;
a central office access device 120, usually a DSL Access Multiplexer (DSLAM), generally configured to multiplex and de-multiplex xDSL data on various lines, the central office access device 120 particularly including a central office xDSL transceiver unit (xTU-C) 121, a central office xTU management entity 122, and a central office management information base 123;
a network management system 130, generally configured to manage the access devices, the network management system 130 typically interacting with the central office access device 120 through Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP);
a Dynamic Line Management (DLM) system 140, generally responsible for DSL parameter acquisition, trouble shooting, etc;
In the above XDSL management system, the XDSL transceiver unit 111 in the remote access device 110 is connected to the XDSL transceiver unit 121 in the central office access device 120 via Digital Subscriber Lines 150, and the central office access device 120 is connected to a broadband network via a service network interface 160;
the DLM system 140 may acquire line parameters from the central office access device 120 directly or via the network management system 130.
In order to perform DSL maintenance in the above XDSL management system, it is necessary for the DLM system to acquire parameters from DSLs and evaluate DSL operation condition using the acquired parameters. In developing the present disclosure, the inventor found that there are some problems in the related art.
In particular, in existing DLM systems, DSL parameters are acquired from all DSLs at the same frequency, and thus, with low efficiency. In practical applications, the DSLs managed by the DLM systems differ greatly in operation condition. For example, some DSLs work relatively stably, while others work unstably. In the case that the parameters are acquired from all the DSLs at a relatively high frequency according to the related art, although the status of the DSLs may be ascertained and unstable DSLs may be maintained timely, due to the facts that the DLM systems manage a large number of DSLs (typically on the order of 1 million) and most of the DSLs work relatively stably and thus there is no need for frequent parameter acquisitions, enormous resource wasting may occur. If the parameters are acquired from all the DSLs at a relatively low frequency, unstable DSLs cannot be maintained timely and thus the effectiveness of DSL maintenance in the DSL systems may be degraded, although resource wasting may be reduced.